The Science Museum has ended its sponsorship deal with oil and gas giant Equinor following pressure from climate change protesters.
Equinor had sponsored the museum’s interactive Wonderlab since 2016 but the beloved London museum said it was severing ties with the Norwegian state-owned energy giant.
The Observer reported that the museum cut ties after the company failed to align its carbon emissions with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C.
In a statement, a museum spokesperson told the Standard: “‘Equinor’s sponsorship of the Science Museum’s Wonderlab gallery has drawn to a close at the end of their current contract term.
“Their contribution has been enormously important to us and has helped inspire hundreds of thousands of young potential engineers and scientists
“The partnership concludes with our warm appreciation and with our ongoing encouragement to Equinor to continue to raise the bar in their efforts to put in place emissions reduction targets aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5°C.”
In emails shared with the Observer, Science Museum director Sir Ian Blatchford told Equinor that the company was in breach of the museum’s pledge to ensure its sponsors complied with the Paris Climate Agreement.
The move has also applied pressure on the Science Museum to distance itself from other fossil fuel sponsors, including the oil giant BP and the Indian coal-mining conglomerate Adani.
The museum had previously defended its relationship with oil and gas companies in the past and the end of the sponsorship deal marked a major shift in its policy.
In 2019, Sir Ian told the Financial Times that “even if the Science Museum were lavishly publicly funded I would still want to have sponsorship from the oil companies”.
Hearing about the end of the sponsorship. Chris Garrard, co-director of Culture Unstained, which has campaigned against the fossil fuel sponsorship of the Science Museum, said: “This is a seismic shift. After years of mounting pressure, the Science Museum has now adopted red lines on climate change which have led to Equinor being dropped.
“Yet rather than proudly telling the world that it took action because its sponsor was flouting climate targets backed by governments around the world, the museum continues to push the false narrative that its polluting sponsors are leading the energy transition.”
He continued: “With BP also failing to align its business with Paris Agreement goals and Adani the world’s biggest private producer of coal, the museum must now hold these companies to the same standard and stop promoting their toxic brands.”
